Having surrendered the Section III Class B title to Altmar-Parish-Williamstown a season ago, the Solvay softball team will not feel satisfied until it takes the crown back.

It helps, in that quest, to have a pitching ace – and the Bearcats possess one in Lauren Nichols, whose first outing of 2017 could not have gone better as she tossed a perfect game last Monday afternoon in a 10-0 victory over Syracuse.

Twenty-one Syracuse batters went to the plate, and all 21 were set down. Nichols accumulated 15 strikeouts, which meant that Solvay’s defense only had to record six putouts, all of them in the infield.

Any runs would do, but the Bearcats struck for four of them in the bottom of the first inning. Then it was quiet until the fifth, when Solvay scored twice more before capping the effort with another four-run rally in the sixth.

All nine Bearcat batters got at least one hit, two of them from Nadea Davis, who homered and finished with four RBIs. Sam Farruggio went three-for-four and drove in a run as Althea Davies got two RBIs. Nichols, Delana Thomas and Hope Riviera had one RBI apiece as Caitlin McCann scored twice.

While that was going on, Westhill opened its softball season at Jordan-Elbridge, and while it wasn’t perfection, the Warriors still had a productive day at the plate as it put away the Eagles 15-1.

Just like with Solvay, the entire Westhil lineup got into the hit column as it eventually produced 16 hits, three of them by Leah Diefendorf, including a tripl. Sara Galante doubled as she, along with Bella Lavigne, Tess Hogan, Janea Ricks and Katie MacBain, produced two hits. Bailey Van Gordon and Gabriella Bard led J-E with two hits apiece.

Marcellus, with a large returning cast from 2016, proved even more potent in its opener at Skaneateles, taking just five innings to put away the Lakers 21-0. A seven-run first inning set the tone as the Mustangs batted around and then continued to put up runs in every inning after.

Sydney Lewis piled up seven RBIs, joining Emily Welch as they both got four hits, including a triple. Welch drove in three runs as Evelyn Webster hit her team’s first home run of the season, matching Isabel Rodolico and Caroline Trytek with two RBIs apiece. McKenna Donegan drove in a run and scored four times, with Trytek contributing three hits and Alyssa Cook adding an RBI.